V.eiXui.{ Ujako^x.U'*-^-^ 



ADDRESS OF 




HONORABLE 

JOHN BARRETT 

w 

Director General of the Pan American Union 

and Former United States Minister to Argentina, Colombia 

and Panama 



BEFORE THE 



ILLINOIS 
STATE BAR ASSOCIATION 



FEBRUARY 19, 1916 



3^^ 

Distributed by the 
PAN AMERICAN UNION 
Washington, D. C, U.S.A. 

JOHN BARRETT, Director General. 
Francisco J. Yanes, Ass't Director. 



THE PAN AMERICAN UNION is the international 
organization and office maintained by the twenty- 
one American Republics, controlled by a Governing 
Board composed of the Secretary of State of the 
United States and the Diplomatic Representatives 
in Washington of the other American nations, 
administered by a Director General and Assistant 
Director chosen by this Board and assisted by a 
staff of statisticians, compilers, trade experts, trans- 
lators, editors, librarians and clerks, and devoted to 
the development of commerce, friendly intercourse 
and better acquaintance among all the American 
Republics. 

SPECIAL NOTE: While the utmost care is exer- 
cised by the Pan American Union in the compila- 
tion of the books, pamphlets, and reports issued 
directly by it, and while also an earnest effort is 
exerted to make sure of the responsibility of other 
publications prepared outside of this office but dis- 
tributed by it at the request of the various govern- 
ments concerned, NEITHER THE ORGANIZATION 
NOR ITS OFFICIALS CAN BE HELD RESPON- 
SIBLE FOR INACCURACIES WHICH MAY APPEAR 

THEREIN. . _. . /-y^'/y 




John Barrett 
Director General Pan American Union, Washington, D. C. 



ADDRESS OF 

HONOEABLE JOHN BARRETT 

DIRECTOR GENERAL OF THE PAN" AMERICAN UNION AND FORMER 

UNITED STATES MINISTER TO ARGENTINA, 

COLOMBIA AND PANAMA 

BEFORE THE 

ILLINOIS STATE BAR ASSOCIATION 

FEBRUARY 19, 1916 



President MacChesney: Gentlemen, I am sorry to break 
in on your animated conversation, but the time has arrived when 
I know you are all anxious to hear from Mr. Barrett. It seemed 
to the committee, when thfey were arranging for this meeting, that 
nothing could be of more interest to that part of the Bar who are 
thoughtfully considering the foreign relations of the United States, 
than the relation of the Monroe Doctrine to some of the problems 
which we as a nation, together with all of Europe, are facing, and 
it becomes important to us to know what the future of the United 
States may be, and what relation the development of the other 
Americans may have to our own development. Perhaps no or- 
ganization has done more to bring that home to the American 
people than has the Pan American Union. We have all heard a 
great deal about the Monroe Doctrine for a great many years. 
Some time ago it was thought it had gone out of fashion and 
should be abandoned ; that the policy which had grown out of a de- 
sire to protect the integrity of the South American nations had be- 
come an affront to them, and an intimation of superiority which 
was neither desired by them nor advantageous to us. But since 
the European war began many people have reconstructed their 
ideas upon this subject and are trying to think out what the 
policy of this country should be. And certainly the great Pan 
American movement, originating many years ago with Mr. Blaine, 
who came out here with the Pan American Congress which I re- 



member as a lad attending with my father over at the old Grand 
Pacific Hotel, down through the very constructive work of Mr. 
Barrett, has formed a basis for development in Europe which 
we hope somehow may give inspiration for a solution of their 
problem so they may live upon some such basis as the countries 
of the Americas have been able to do. And no man in this coun- 
try knows more about the relations of the Latin American coun- 
tries, or can give us a message which will be more worth listening 
to upon the general subject of Pan Americanism or the Monroe 
Doctrine, than Mr. John Barrett, the Director General of the 
Pan American Union, and former United States Minister to 
Argentina, Panama and Colombia, who will speak to you tonight. 
(Applause.) 

Mr. John Barrett : Mr. President, Members of the Illinois 
State Bar Association, and Guests : I hope that I have shown my 
appreciation of the honor which you have done me in inviting me 
to speak tonight, by coming at a time when it is most difficult, as 
you may readily understand, to get away from Washington, and 
by the fact that this is one of only four or five invitations which 
I have accepted out of nearly two hundred received for this and 
the next month. The interest throughout the country is now so 
great in all phases of the effects and influences of the European 
war that it would seem as if every variety of organization, com- 
mercial, social, civic and scientific as well as legal, were anxious 
to know more about what might be called the present day Pan 
Americanism and the status of the Monroe Doctrine as affected 
by the European war. Eecognizing the notable character of this 
organization, I accepted the invitation which was so earnestly 
tendered through your amiable, diplomatic and persistent Presi- 
dent! (Cries of "good.") And I am very glad that his amiability, 
his diplomacy and his persistency won out in my case, for I have 
looked over this audience, I have been told who the majority of 
you are, and I feel as if I were being really honored by your pres- 
ence here this evening. I recognize, however, that the honor is 
not to me personally, but to the organization with which I am 
connected, and to the cause in which I am engaged. I can say 
this, however, that I do have, always, a real satisfaction in speak- 



3 

ing to a representative audience of this city, this section and state. 
As T remarked to a group of men earlier today, I honestly and 
sincerely feel that, as far as public service for my country abroad 
or in Washington could permit, this State has been, practically, 
my residence for the last sixteen years. If I may be that personal, 
I would add that, born and brought up under the shadow of the 
green hills of Vermont, I betook myself, right after graduation, to 
the Pacific Coast, never having been west of the Hudson Eiver 
before, and was on the coast in the good state of Oregon when 1 
was first appointed United States Minister. But later on my official 
labors unavoidably separated me from the state of my adoption, 
and I naturally sought to have a habitat in this State of Illinois 
where I felt the greatest attraction, where the only sweetheart I 
ever had lives, namely, my mother; and my brother also. 

I have always found it to be true in my experience with 
foreign affairs, first when fifteen years ago I discussed the Philip- 
pines after some five or six years official experience in the Far 
East, and again since then when I have been discussing Latin 
American matters, that, if Chicago and this State get behind any- 
thing, you can count upon it that the rest of the country is also 
going to get behind it ! From watching, for example, the attitude 
and the influence of the Chicago Association of Commerce and the 
Illinois Manufacturers' Association in the great question of Pan 
American trade, I am aware that they have been powerful factors 
and influences in awakening all of the commercial organizations 
throughout the country to the importance of that trade. I think 
I can say without exaggeration — and I am glad Mr. Nickerson is 
here to hear it — that the Chicago Association of Commerce re- 
sponded more quickly and more actively to my first appeal which 
I made all over the country nine or ten years ago for practical 
and persistent effort and work towards the development of greater 
trade between the United States and Latin America, than did any 
other similar commercial organization in the United States. And 
this interest has had its direct effect. Before the commercial or- 
ganizations in New York City or San Frahcisco or even New 
Orleans, had fully opened their eyes, so to speak, you here in 
Chicago had seen the vision and acted upon it. Today New York 



is taking many leaves out of your book, in its efforts to get into 
closer touch with the countries lying south of us. 

I am well aware of what a busy State this is and of what a 
busy city this is, and how busy are the members of this association. 
You are not men of leisure, in the sense of having nothing to do 
but to go to the Club or travel about, but you have great responsi- 
bilities in your, profession ; or, if you are business men, you are all 
constructive men of the hour and have not much time — and it is 
no discredit to yourselves — to study the intimate phases of the 
relations of the United States to and with its twenty sister Ameri- 
can republics. You have been so occupied in making good to your 
clients, you have been so occupied in extending the ramifications 
of your respective businesses, that you have not had time, any 
more than I have had time to- study your individual work, to 
study the work of the Pan American Union and really to com- 
prehend what kind of an organization that is down there in Wash- 
ington which today is doing so much to develop and forward the 
new Pan Americanism and to make, as it were, the Monroe Doc- 
trine a Pan American doctrine or policy. ' 

Some of you have heard me tell this story before, but it so 
aptly illustrates what I want to say that I will run the risk of 
repeating it. I might say that the majority of you are not much 
more familiar with the development, history, resources and poten- 
tialities of the Latin American countries, or with the real history 
and the practical work of the Pan American Union plant, as I 
might call it, in Washington, than I was familiar with Siam when 
I had the honor of first being appointed Minister to that country 
— I will not say how many years ago ! All of you men here were 
well along; the ladies were still in swaddling clothes! But I was 
so young that it would have been better if I had been spanked and 
kept at home instead of being sent out as a United States Minister. 
In those days I thought a man had to be at least President of the 
Illinois State Bar Association , before he could qualify as Envoy 
Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary. I was in Washing- 
ton. You know how men often go to Washington after the elec- 
tion of a new President! I was there, and was hoping to arrange 
some matters in my state that would be acceptable to all concerned 



when, just as I was about to say good-bye to the President, he 
said : 

"Barrett, I am looking for some young man who isn't afraid 
of hard work and the tropics, who wants to make a reputation for 
himself, who doesn't know much about the country, and therefore, 
will not be prejudiced, to send out to Siam as United States Min- 
ister, to settle an important case involving several millions of dol- 
lars and the interpretation of our extraterritorial treaties." 

The first thought that came into my mind was that he wanted 
me to suggest or recommend somebody; that he had decided, in the 
apportionment of his Ministers, that a Minister to "any old place" 
like Siam might come from my part of the country, and I began 
to think of some young man in my adopted state of Oregon whom 
I would like to get rid of, who would go so far away that he would 
never get back, or would die of the cholera ! And when I was try- 
ing to think who were the most undesirable men upon my list, the 
President looked at me and said : 

"Barrett, I am thinking of appointing you Minister to Siam, 
what do you know about that country ?" 

Well, I was so surprised that I hadn't a thought for a moment. 
To save my life, I couldn't remember whether Siam was in the 
south Atlantic or south Pacifit3, in Asia or in Africa. But I re- 
membered that he said he wanted somebody that did not know 
much about the country, and so I thought that if I could impress 
him with my knowledge I would escape the possibilities of cholera 
in that part of the world. Then there came to me a childhood 
memory ; I braced up and said : 

"I know, Mr. President, all about Siam." 

He replied: 

"You do? What do you know about Siam?" 

And I answered with an assumption of great knowledge : 

"Siam is the country that produced the immortal Siamese 
twins." (Laugher.) 

Whereupon, with a twinkle in his eye,, he grasped my hand 
and exclaimed: 

"Well, I am glad, indeed^ to get hold of a man with such 
abundant information." (Laughter.) 



6 

Without going into the details of why I accepted, I can say 
that, when I did go out there, my eyes began to open. Wlien I 
touched Japan, later Korea, thence proceeded down the coast of 
China to Hong Kong and then by the South China Sea around 
Indo-China and up the Gulf of Siam to Siam itself, my eyes 
opened so wide with astonishment and admiration that it was 
at first difficult to close them. Wlien I had been a little time in 
Bangkok, the capital of Siam, I found that I was in the most 
progressive kingdom of Asia, next to Japan. I found that the 
King of Siam was a most intelligent and highly educated mon- 
arch; who was descended through a distinguished ancestry; who 
spoke almost as excellent English as does- your presiding officer; 
who lived in a palace equal in size and beauty to that of the 
Emperor of Germany, or, that I may appear to be perfectly neu- 
tral, to that of the King of England ! There I saw the first auto- 
mobile in which I ever rode; there I saw the first electric street 
car line ever constructed in all Asia ; there I saw the first electric 
light plant that was ever built in a great Asiatic city ; there I saw the 
first great woman's college erected by Asiatic money, by the King 
himself, in which were teachers from America and Europe edu- 
cating the young women of that land as they would the women of 
our country. Then I remarked, as T wrote back to my friends 
here, "How is it that you have been so extremely busy and occu- 
pied back there that you allowed young men like myself to gradu- 
ate from college without knowing of this great modern develop- 
ment in Asia?" And during the five or six years that I spent in 
the Far East I was continually striving to inform Americans 
about that part of the world, little realizing that it presently would 
befall me or be my next responsibility to aid in opening up an- 
other part of the world to the knowledge of our people. 

When I came back to this country sixteen years ago, one of 
the first addresses that I had the honor of making on the Far East 
and our vast responsibilities and opportunities there and in the 
Philippines, I delivered in this city as the guest of honor at the 
annual Washington's Birthday meeting of the Union League Club. 
I remember that occasion as if it were yesterday. But I am not 
going to talk more about the Orient, although I wish I could 



speak more of it, for it was my privilege to have had friendly 
relationship with the present head of China, Yuan Shi Kai, and to 
have been in close association with the men in other parts of 
China who are figuring in its history and reorganization today. 
I am not here tonight, however, to discuss that great Asiatic field, 
with all its marvelous ramifications and potentialities — and mighty 
powers for the world and for our own country ! 

Now our characteristic ignorance of Siam is, I fear, charac- 
teristic also of our acquaintance with a majority of the countries 
lying south of us, but I hope when I am through tonight every 
one of you will go out of this room feeling a sense of new interest, 
a sense of new international responsibility that he or she has not 
had before. Not because I say it, but because of the inherent 
seriousness of 'the problem, involving the very life of this nation, 
the very prosperity of this city, and the very greatness of this 
state. I do not say that in a careless way, to make words, but I 
say it, realizing who are the men to whom I am speaking. 

To stand on, as it were, a proper platform of viewpoint and 
to grasp this question, we should understand what is the Pan 
American Union in Washington. In order that, from the very 
start I may have your interest, not based upon my own opinion, 
I am going to tell you the opinion of the Pan American Union 
held by a great English statesman. This English statesman some 
time ago stated that he was perfectly sure that if they had had in 
London or Paris, in Berlin or Vienna, in Eome or Petrograd, a 
"Pan European Union," an "All European" union, organized upon 
exactly the same plan as the Pan American Union in "Washington, 
controlled and directed in a similar way, with the same kind of 
inspiration, there would never have been a European war! 

Now, honor bright, gentlemen, do you want any greater com- 
pliment to the practical value of the Pan American Union than 
the statement that this greatest of all wars, greatest in its de- 
struction to the ideals of civilization, greatest in its cost, greatest 
in its loss of life, could have been avoided if they had had a 
duplicate of the Pan American Union in the form of a Pan Europ- 
ean Union in one of the capitals of Europe? And now I believe, 
having your interest, not on my own testimony, but on that of 



8 

this English statesman, you want me to tell you why he had a 
right to make this observation. 

I wish that I could transport you all bodily, this nioment, to 
Washington, and escort you. to the foot of Seventeenth Street, at 
the entrance to Potomac Park — past the White House, past that 
wonderful southern outlook of the White House which is, in my 
opinion, one of the most inspiring vistas in the wide world; past 
the Corcoran Art Gallery and the new building of the Eed Cross 
and the home of the Daughters of the American Revolution, and 
show to you all that beautiful Palace of Peace and Commerce 
and Comity among the nations of the western hemisphere, that 
building which is literally — and think what this means — the Capi- 
tol of the western hemisphere in the national Capital of the United 
States, a description that applies to no other building in the wide 
world, in any capital under the sun ! 

And then I wish I could take you within its portals, past those 
noble groups of statuary, one representing North America and the 
other South America, through those great bronze grilled doors, past 
that exquisite exotic patio, the piece de resistance, in many respects, 
of the architecture of the building; then up the grand stairway, 
past the busts of the George Washingtons of the southern republics, 
into the Stately Hall of the Americas, which has been described as 
the most perfect room, architecturally, of the western hemisphere ; 
and then I would bring you finally to the Governing Board room, 
and then, as you stood there I would say to you, without any mis- 
use of the term: 

"Mr. Member of the Illinois State Bar Association, you are 
now standing in the unique room of the world." 

That often misused word is not misused in that sense, because 
there is no other room like having to do with the relationship of 
nations anywhere in the world. 

On the first Wednesday of every month, by international agree- 
ment and by official enactment, there assemble in that room, around 
a mahogany table of majestic beauty, the plenipotentiaries of 
twenty-one nations, the envoys of one hundred and eighty millions 
of people. There at the head of the table sits your Secretary of 
State, Robert Lansing; upon his right sits the Ambassador of 



Brazil, Senor Domicio da Gama; upon the left sits Senor Don 
Eduardo Suarez Mujica, the Ambassador of Chili and late Presi- 
dent of the great Pan American Scientific Congress; then again on 
the right of Ambassador of Brazil sits Dr. Eomulo S. Naon, 
Ambassador of Argentina; then on the left of the Ambassador of 
Chile is the Minister of Bolivia, Senor Don Ignacio Calderon, and 
so on, each man having his seat according to rank, as fpllows: 
Senor Don Carlos. M. de Pena, Minister of Uruguay ; Senor Don 
Joaquin Mendez, Minister of Guatemala; Senor Don Frederico 
Alfonso Pezet, Minister of Peru; Senor Don Julio Betancourt, 
Minister of Colombia; Senor Don Hector Velazquez, Minister of 
Paraguay; Senor Don Eusebio A. Morales, Minister of Panama; 
'Senor Don Emiliano Chamorro, Minister of Nicaragua; Senor 
Don Gonzalo S. Cordova, Minister of Ecuador; Monsieu Solon 
Menos, Minister of Haiti; Senor Don Carlos Manuel de Cespedes, 
Minister of Cuba; Senor Don Santos A. Dominici, Minister of 
Venezuela; Senor Don Eafael Zaldivar, Minister of Salvador; 
Senor Don Manuel Castro Quesada, Minister of Costa Pica; Senor 
Don Armando Perez Perdomo, Minister of the Dominican Eepub- 
lic; and Senor Don E. Camilo Diaz, Charge d' Affaires of Hon- 
duras. Senor Don Eliseo Arredondo, Ambassador-elect of Mexico, 
has not yet presented his credentials, but upon doing so will take 
his seat around this historic board. Around that table there is 
not a man who by his brain ability would not be fitted to occupy 
a seat in the Cabinet of the President of the United States, and 
many of them fitted to sit upon the Supreme Bench of your State; 
all of them men who would be, if lawyers, qualified to join this 
Association; from their mentality, nearly all of them big enough 
to be the Presidents of their own lands, masters of history, stu- 
dents of diplomacy, scholars, philosophers, and in many cases, 
wonderful orators; — there, around that table once a month from 
one hour to two or three hours, those men talk about the affairs of 
the republics and the Pan American Union with as much friend- 
liness and frankness as the directors of this organization would 
consider its welfare around a friendly table, or as the members of 
your family would discuss your family affairs. Around that table 
now for two years these twenty-one representatives of the western 



10 

hemisphere, from the United States on the north to Argentina 
on the south, have sat, shoulder to shoulder, keeping the Pan 
American bond unbroken and preventing the flame of the Europ- 
ean war reaching with its disastrous scorching fires the shores 
of the western hemisphere. And today, if there is any one thought 
that inspires the meetings of that Governing Board, it is that the 
Americas must stand together now as they have never stood before 
in the history of this hemisphere. And when I tell you that 
during the nine or ten years in which I have had the honor to be 
the executive ojBBcer of that organization, it has helped to prevent 
several international wars upon the western hemisphere, you will 
realize that it is not an impractical, a theoretical organization. 

Now, on the practical side: In that building is a staff of 
trained men, assisted by competent stenographers and clerks, who 
are experts in international law and commerce and statistics, also 
editors, compilers, translators, who are in touch with the whole 
western hemisphere, conducting a great international bureau of 
information, and carrying on a correspondence averaging three 
or four hundred letters a day. And we publish a monthly Bul- 
letin — I have with me here' the English edition — in English, Span- 
ish, Portugese and French, having more pages of reading matter 
and illustrations than any one of the popular magazines that you 
buy upon the news stand and, being official, can not have, of course, 
advertisements, but, in actual reading matter and illustrations, 
exceeding the average popular magazine. It is published, mind you, 
in Spanish in French and in Portugese, as well as in English, 
and the demand for it nearly four or five times greater than we 
are able to supply. It is a magazine which, before the war broke 
out, the German Emperor described as the most interesting, in- 
structive publication in the world. 

In that building we have the Columbus Memorial Library, in 
which there are now thirty-five thousand volumes of up-to-date 
Americana; which, by the international regulations, is made the 
repository by every government of its. official documents, and 
which has one hundred and sixty thousand index cards. In our 
reading and map rooms are all the principal newspapers and 
magazines of Latin America, as well as maps and atlases and 



11 

directories and every other kind of published informative matter 
which will spread the knowledge of Latin America throughout the 
United States and a knowledge of the United States throughout 
Latin America. 

That organization, defined in a sentence, before I conclude 
my observations upon it, is the official, international organization 
of the twenty-one American republics — the United States, and its 
sister Latin American republics — controlled by a Governing Board 
made up of all the plenipotentiaries of the Latin American countries 
in Washington, and the Secretary of State of the United States, 
who is Chairman, ex-officio ; maintained by their joint contributions, 
each government paying just that part of the annual budget of 
expenses that its population is a part of the total population of 
the twenty-one republics; and administered by a Director Gen- 
eral and an Assistant Director who are not appointees of the 
President of the United States in any sense, except that he has a 
one twenty-first vote, but appointed by all the Presidents of the 
western hemisphere, expressed through these representatives upon 
the Governing Board. Therefore, I have the honor, as I stand 
before you tonight, of being the only international officer upon the 
western hemisphere. And there is no other officer in the world 
that is thus elected to serve as the executive officer of an organiza- 
tion of a large group of nations such as ia the Director General 
of the Pan American Union. This is said without egotism, for 
it was, and will be, equally true of, respectively, my predecessor 
and successor. 

What I say to you tonight, therefore, is not based alone upon 
my experience and my patriotism as a citizen of the United States, 
but upon my knowledge of all those countries lying south of us 
acquired by my traveling through them, by my studying them, by 
my trying to get behind, as it were, their thoughts; by my en- 
deavoring to read the mind of the Latin American and think 
as he thinks. With my experience as your Minister in three of 
those countries — Argentina, Colombia and Panama — and my ten 
years' experience as the executive officer of the Pan American 
Union, I feel as if I had reached a point now where, whenever I 
talk to a Latin American, he has the feeling that he is talking 



12 

to one whom he understands just as well as he understands his 
own countrymen; and where I have the feeling, when I talk to an 
Argentine, a Brazilian, a Colombian, a Chilean, a Mexican, a 
Guatemalan, a Cuban, a Venezulean, or a man of any other Latin 
American Nationality that I have when I am talking with any of 
my friends or my kin here in the United States. 

Now then, with that platform, as it were, to stand upon, 
with the eyes of the Pan American Union to look through, we 
come to the next and a very important phase of the evening's dis- 
cussion. When I accepted this invitation, I said such an or- 
ganization is worthy of some particular message that represents 
my real thought at this moment; and I weighed my thoughts very 
carefully. I went over this message, time and time again, and 
■finally I boiled it down into a few words, comparatively speaking. 
I did not want to trust to extemporaneous utterance. It will take 
me only a few minutes to read it, and I hope it will sink deep 
into your minds, because it is inspired by a phase of the present 
situation that I do not think we have considered as carefully as 
we should have. 

The air has been full of talk about preparedness, not only in 
organizations lik:e this, but at social dinners and even in the 
cabarets. Everywhere preparedness has been talked about, and 
yet not one speech in .a hundred, not one conversation in a thousand 
has come down to the basic question: Why this preparedness? 
Now, naturally, the answer is, unpreparedness ! Of course, I 
admit that, but on what ground is any country going to test the 
, preparedness of the United States? That is the question, and 
there is only one answer, absolutely, and that is the Monroe Doc- 
trine ! There is no other possible great basic question in our 
relations with the nations, not only with those across the Atlantic 
but with those across the Pacific. With that thought in mind I 
wrote these words — concerning which I make only one reservation, 
as I do for all I say in this address, and that is that they of course 
express my personal views only and do not in any way commit 
the attitude of the members of my Governing Board: 

"Illinois has a most direct concern in the present Pan Ameri- 
can situation. No other state, unless it be New York, has an 



13 

ernial interest. The vast manufacturing, financial and agricultural 
development of Illinois will be surely affected in the future by 
the growth of commercial, financial and political relations between 
the United States and each one of the twenty Latin American 
Eepublics that they cannot be blind to their responsibilities of 
this very hour. 

"Speaking with the sincerity, first, of one who for fully 
fifteen years has regarded Illinois as his home state, although 
obliged in humbly serving it abroad and in Washington to be 
absent much of the time, and, secondly, of one who by his official 
position as United States Minister in several Latin American 
capitals, and later as the only international officer of all the Ameri- 
can governments in Washington, has been unavoidably brought 
more intimately than possibly any one else into close touch with 
Pan American affairs, I appeal to you lawyers, representing the 
whole state, and, through you, to the men and women of all call- 
ings, to realize that the United States is today face to face with 
an extraordinary crisis which may determine forever whether it 
will he an honored leader or a despised laggard among the nations 
of the western hemisphere and hence throughout the world, and for 
which it must prepare, 

"The ominous possibilities of what may happen at the con- 
clusion of the European war involving, first, a final test by Europe 
or Asia of the real meaning of the Monroe Doctrine, and, second, 
an unprecedented and merciless competition of Europe and Asia 
with the United States to regain and enlarge their lost trade in 
Latin America, must be fully realized and prepared for! Illinois 
has too much at stake directly and indirectly in the outcome of 
such portentous development to sit by quietly for a moment and let 
the procession pass on. 

"Illinois must realize what Latin America means to the United 
States and what the United States mean to Latin America. Illi- 
nois must grasp the fact that the very life and integrity of this 
great nation may depend upon preserving the integrity of each 
and all of the Latin American Eepublics against conquest at the 
hands of an European or Asiatic foe. Illinois must know that if 
European commerce driven by the war to desperation to recover 



14 

its former vigor and position, gains the upper hand in Latin 
America after the war, it will be a question of long and exhaust- 
ing years before the United States will be able to achieve leader- 
ship, 

"While all Americans throughout all America — Pan America 
— from the United States south to Argentina and ,Chile, hope, 
pray and even believe tliat no European or Asiatic nation, or group 
of nations, will dare or be inclined to test the Monroe Doctrine 
through war with the United States and its sister American re- 
publics, and while it would seem a convincing argument that no 
victorious or defeated nation or group of nations will have the 
temerity, strength or desire to engage in another conflict with 
a fresh foe of such vast potential resources as the United States 
and its sister neutral countries of America, yet there is no such 
thing as absolute security in this grave situation. 

"We cannot forget the cold blooded fact that now stares Pan 
America in the face : Whichever way the war ends, there may be 
no love on either side for the United States and its sister neutral 
American republics. The victors may say that they won in spite 
of the United States and the other American republics ■ the los&rs 
may say that they lost because of the United States and Latin 
America. The present serious diplomatic differences between the 
United States and both warring factions, the tone of the press of 
both sides, and the reports of newspaper correspondents and other 
Americans returning from Europe confirm beyond question this 
statement. 

"Now then, the passions aroused by the war may be so terrible 
and lasting, the feeling of resentment on the part of the conqueror 
and conquered may be so keen and persistent, and the overwhelm- 
ing sense of power that will result from the possession of 'a mighty 
veteran army of trained soldiers and a great armada of ships and 
sailors, and, again, the lust for the unimpoverished wealth and 
resources of the United States and Latin America to aid in paying 
the debts of the war and in recouping from its effects may be so 
appealing and impelling to the passions of the all-powerful victors 
that no man, no matter how sincere and earnest a pacifist, can 
confidently for a moment declare that the United States and Latin 



15 

America are absolutely safe against such dangers. 

"It is the knowledge of such possibilities that should inevitably 
evolve the Monroe Doctrine into a Pan American Doctrine, he- 
longing as much to Latin America as to the United States. With 
the Monroe Doctrine more alive than it has been since its declara- 
tion in 1823, the European war is forcing All America, in spite 
of the critics of the doctrine, in spite of its opponents and tra- 
ducers, in spite of itself and its friends, and even in spite of 
whether Latin America wants it or not, to nail the standard of the 
doctrine to the mast of the Pan American ship of state and to stand 
by it now and hereafter as a Pan American doctrine and principle 
of international as well as of national integrity and defense. This 
should mean that for their own individual and collective salvation 
the governments and peoples of Latin America would stand with 
all their moral and physical power and with all their resources for 
the sovereignty of the United States if it should he attacked hy a 
European or Asiatic foe as quickly as the United States would 
stand for the integrity and sovereignty of any or all of the Latin 
American republics if they should be assailed by an enemy from 
beyond the eastern or western seas. 

"Eealizing this extraordinary situation, let there be inaug- 
urated in Illinois a widespread Pan American movement which 
will educate its people to the importance of the political and com- 
mercial relations of the United States with Latin America. Let 
Illinois develpp a new appreciation and knowledge of our sister 
American republics and peoples. Let Illinois in its universities 
and colleges, in its public and private schools, and in its com- 
mercial, professional, social, fraternal and labor organizations, take 
up the study of our sister republics, their history, their commerce, 
their resources, their civilization, their language, their literature, 
and their institutions. Let Illinois stand for the new Pan Ameri- 
canism which means the development of a solidarity of permanent 
interest, an interdependence of commerce, finance and trade, an 
exchange of ideas and knowledge, a unity of political and eco- 
nomic-purposes, a common preparedness and defense that will make 
Pan America and Pan Americanism forever the chief factors in 
world progress, world civilization and world peace. 



16 

"If what I have said arouses further interest in the Pan Ameri- 
can opportunity and responsibility, I ask you to communicate with 
me at the Pan American Union in Washington, where that great 
organization, devoted to the development of commerce, friendship 
and peace among the American republics, is always ready to pro- 
mote, through the spread of reliable information, the cause of 
practical Pan Americanism." 

I thank you for bearing with me so kindly while I read that 
message to you. I realized that while I read that many of you 
were thinking: Mr. Barrett, have you not exaggerated? Have 
you not exaggerated the meaning of Pan America? Have you 
not exaggerated the power of Pan America? 

Now, let us see, what does Pan America mean? Literally, it 
means just what it says. All America. But in the definition of it 
today we do not include Canada or the other dependencies of 
European countries. Therefore, by Pan America we mean the 
twenty-one republics that reach from the United States and Mex- 
ico and Cuba on the north, to Argentina, Uruguay and Chile on 
the south. Do you realize that those twenty-one countries have an 
area of twelve millions of square miles, or nearly three times the 
area of Europe, almost as great as the area of Africa, and two- 
thirds that of Asia, without including the four million square 
miles of Canada? Do you realize these twenty-one countries have 
a population of one hundred and eighty millions. Do you realize, 
for we say "commerce is the life blood of nations," that these 
twenty-one republics in the last year before the war, 1913, con- 
ducted a foreign trade with the rest of the world and with each 
other valued at eight thousand millions of dollars; in other words, 
eight billions of dollars ? That is Pan America ! 

ISTow let us segregate Latin America from the United States, 
to see what the power of Latin America means. "Latin America" 
is the correct term to use in describing the countries that reach 
from Cuba and Mexico south, not "Spanish America." We should 
never use the term "Spanish America" unless we wish to differen- 
tiate the rest of Latin America from Brazil. Brazil, which is 
almost equal to a third of the total area of Latin America, is 
Portugese in origin and language. Latin America is the correct 



17 

phrase to use in describing this entire field south of us. Latin 
America comprises twenty countries, with a population of eighty 
millions, or eight-tenths of our population, which is increasing 
more rapidly than our own population, and which ojff from the 
great eastern and western routes of travel, and before the Panama 
Canal was in full operation, conducted an annual foreign trade 
of three thousand millions of dollars, or, in other words, three 
billions of dollars. And that, in turn, represented an increase of 
one billion of dollars, or one thousand millions of dollars in the 
last ten years ! 

Now, honor bright, if these countries to which we have given 
such little attention can build up a trade of three billions of dol- 
lars before this war, and increase that trade one billion of dollars 
in ten years, no matter what you may have thought of them 
before, are they not deserving of your closest attention and study? 

As we look upon this great field, however, do not let us lump 
it all together. Do not let us put it in, so to speak, one mass, any 
more than we would put all Europe together. There are greater 
differences between groups of Latin American countries than there 
are between Great Britain on the one hand and the Balkan States 
on the other. There is more apartness between Argentina and 
Uruguay, Chile and Bolivia, on one side, and Central America on 
the other hand, than there is between England and Germany and 
France on the one side and the Balkan States and Russia on the 
other. This comparison is made with no reflection whatever on 
either grouping. And yet we are in the habit of lumping them 
all together, and we forget that each one of the Latin American 
countries is sincerely proud of its own individuality. The great- 
est mistake you can make is to call an Argentine a "Spaniard," 
or call a Cuban or Colombian a "Spaniard," You would not 
call an average man of any Latin American country a "Spaniard" 
any more than you would call a man who had lived in this country, 
or whose ancestors had been in this country one hundred years 
ago, a "German," an "Englishman" or a "Frenchman," You 
.would call a "Spaniard" only the man who had kept his citizen- 
ship in Spain, And there are as great differences between the 
present up-to-date Argentine and Chilean and the old Castillian 



18 

Spaniard as between the average American today and his ancestors 
of Great Britain or Germany. That should be borne in mind al- 
ways when you meet these men or engage in trade with them. 

There are three great and interesting segregations of Latin 
America. The first comprises Mexico, the five Central America 
countries, and Panama, Colombia, Venezuela, Cuba, the Domini- 
can Eepublic and Haiti which are largely tributary to the Gulf of 
Mexico and the Carribean sea. They form a group that has nearly 
thirty millions of population, and an annual foreign trade of over 
seven hundred millions of dollars, which represents an increase of 
nearly one hundred per cent in the last ten years. And every port 
of their Atlantic coast line of nearly six or seven thousand miles 
is less than eighteen hundred miles from the average port of the 
Gulf coast of the United States. Nearly three-fifths of the com- 
merce of this section is with the United States; hardly two-fifths 
with Europe. Today over two-thirds of the travel of these coun- 
tries is back and forth with the United States instead of with 
Europe. Think of the enormous potentiality of these countries, 
covering an area equal to all that portion of the United States 
east of the Eocky Mountains, within eighteen hundred miles from 
the average Gulf port of the United States, or less than the dis- 
tance, almost, from the city of Chicago to San Francisco ! Under 
the influence and the example we have set at Panama in mas- 
tering and conquering the tropics, one of the most wonderful 
changes the world has ever known has been wrought along the 
low-lying, pest-ridden line of Central America and South America 
on the Caribbean Sea and Gulf of Mexico, which was formerly 
only the home of incipient revolutions, and has now become the 
home of prosperous cities and progressive peoples; and a vast 
area that no man penetrated is being made literally into gardens 
to supply the food products that the United States needs, in the 
form of bananas and other fruit foods. 

The second great segregation is that western coast of South 
America that has five thousand more miles of coast line from 
Panama to the Straits of Magellan upon the Pacific Ocean, in- 
cluding the coast line of Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Chile, with 
Bolivia tributary through Peru and Chile. , There we have a popu- 



19 

lation of fifteen millions of people and an annual foreign trade 
of over five hundred millions of dollars, which it conducted before 
the Panama Canal was opened, in spite of the difficulties of ap- 
proach through the Straits of Magellan. As you sail up and down 
that western coast line it looks barren and disappointing, but if 
you travel back into the interior you will find it possesses Just as 
great potentialities for development as had California, Oregon 
and Washington, when they were first tapped by the railroads 
from the east and aided by the capital and emigration from the 
eastern part of the United States. Now, with the Panama Canal 
in full operation, as we hope it soon will be, and that coast made 
accessible to our commerce and our capital, there is no reason in 
the world why it should not go forward to just the same kind of 
marvelous development as California, Oregon and Washitigton and 
the states back of them, tributary to the Pacific coast, all enjoy. 

The last of these mighty segregations is on the eastern side 
of South America, including vast Brazil, great Argentina, and 
little but resourceful Uruguay and Paraguay. Here we have a popu- 
lation of thirty to forty millions of people ; an annual foreign trade 
of one billion, six hundred millions of dollars; an area of over 
four million, five hundred square miles, or greater than the entire 
area of the United States by a million and a half square miles, and 
yet still in the infancy of its development! 

Now you possibly say: "Mr. Barrett, you are impressing us 
with these facts, but we want to ask you one or two questions." 
And I am very glad you thought of those questions, because they 
are natural, and I always believe that it is not fair to any audience 
for the speaker to have it all his own way ! So, as you are asking 
those questions in your minds, I am going to answer them. 

You say: "Now, Mr. Barrett, this is interesting, we admit, 
but what about the instability of those governments? What about 
revolutions ?" That is the first bogey ! I am not good at destroy- 
ing bogey at golf, as the majority of you, I presume are, but there 
are some bogeys in regard to Latin America that I love to kill, 
and the first one is in regard to revolutions. It is unfortunate that 
we have this prejudice because of sad conditions in one or two of 
these countries, and have not realized the interesting fact that 



20 

three-fourths of all Latin America in area and population has 
known no revolution whatever in the last twenty-five or thirty 
years ! 

Honor bright, then, gentlemen, on what ground shall we be 
so unfair as to speak of them, as to segregate them all in one 
mass as revolutionary lands? While we are speaking of revolu- 
tions, let me say this: Latin America may have had many in- 
ternal or civil conflicts, but the continent of Europe has had three 
times as many international wars, which are really the test of 
meanness and hatred, than have had the twenty Latin American 
countries during the last one hundred years ! These revolutions 
.have been evolutions rather than revolutions. Seventy-five per 
cent of the revolutions of Latin America have been evolutions into 
an improved condition ! Some of them have been serious and ter- 
rible trials; some of them have not been evolutions into better 
conditions ; but the majority of them, as history tells us by careful 
study, have been in that direction. 

Then you say : "Yes, supposing you destroy that bogey, what 
of the climate? They are all tropical countries, Mr. Barrett, they 
are under a hot sun where great races can not develop." I am 
glad you asked that question, because I remind you, with all due 
respect, that God thought all that out before ever this Association 
had it in its mind ! 

First, we must bear in mind that all the great southern end of 
South America is in the south temperate zone. Southeastern Brazil, 
off of Uruguay, practically all of Argentina, part of Paraguay 
and practically all of Chile and, you might say, a large part of 
Bolivia because of its altitude, are in the south temperate zone. 
In other words, there is an area down there equal to all that sec- 
tion east of the Eocky Mountains, in the south temperate zone, 
with the same kind of climate that we have here in the United 
States. And how many of you realize that Argentina has a 
greater reach from north to south in the temperate zone than 
has the connected area of the United States of North America? 

"Well," you say, "I can not deny that you have answered that 
question, but what of the great tropical belt itself?" Again, I 
answer, the wisdom of the Maker of all things settled that ques- 



21 

tion before we thought it out. I do not know how many of you 
have traveled much through the tropical countries of Latin Amer- 
ica, or how many are familiar with the delightful and wonderful 
experience of becoming intimately acquainted with a mule's back! 
It was my privilege to make a journey of over two thousand miles 
through the Andes of Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Venezuela, 
and I learned more ways of getting on and off a mule than there 
are days in the year! It is sometimes a good way to get ac- 
quainted with these countries. All through Colombia and Ec- 
uador and Venezuela and Peru and in the Central American 
countries there are remarkable plateaus averaging from twenty- 
five hundred to ten thousand feet in altitude and right under the 
Equator, but they have a climate the year around, practically, 
such as they have in New England or in northern Illinois in June 
or in September. 

When I had the honor of being your Minister in Bogota, the 
Capital of Colombia, almost within a stone's throw of the equator, 
I never saw the thermometer in my library go above 79 ; and every 
night in my sleeping room it went down to 59 or 60. And that 
is only one of a half dozen of such plateaus throughout that won- 
derful country. In time, when railroads are built from the coast 
line into the interior; when these great plateaus are made fully 
accessible; when foreign population and commerce come in, you 
are going to see a mighty change that will harness the almost 
immeasurable wealth of those mountains. The great water power 
of the Andes will be harnessed and irrigate those vast plateaus, 
bringing about a change which will astound the world. 

The next bogey you throw at me is : "But why can't we do a 
bigger trade down there?" Now, I love to see that bogey thrown 
at me, because I do like to hit it with all my might ! 

Do you know that there is no greater error today, absolutely 
widely prevalent throughout this country, from the President of 
the United States down, than that the United States has not been 
doing a big commerce in Latin America, and that we are behind 
Germany and Great Britain ? For the life of me, I can not under- 
stand why so many Senators and Congressmen, so many editors, 
so many so-called authorities on Latin America, will look straight 



22 

at the blackboard, see the exact facts and figures that can not be 
denied, and still say, what a pity that we do so little business in 
Latin America, and that we don't know how to build up our trade ! 
Ninety-nine per cent of the men saying those things are still look- 
ing through the glasses of eight, nine and ten years ago, and they 
have the temerity, every now and then, to quote speeches which 
I made eight and nine years ago when those conditions were true ! 

Here is a fact for every one of you to put in his pipe and 
smoke over: In the year 1913, the last peaceful, average year 
before this war, before any of its influences could make trade 
greater or less, what happened? The total value of products ex- 
changed between the United States and these twenty Latin Amer- 
ican countries approximated eight hundred and ten millions of 
dollars. The total value of the products which Great Britain 
exchanged with these twenty countries south of the United States 
approximated six hundred and fifty millions, or one hundred and 
fifty million dollars less than our trade. How about Germany, of 
which we hear so much? The total commerce of Germany with 
the twenty Latin American countries in 1913 was approximately 
four hundred and ten million dollars, or practically only half of 
the total trade of the United States ! I say, honor bright, why 
therefore all this talk, running down American manufacturers, 
criticising American commercial efforts, condemning American 
commercial methods? I will tell you why. It is because we take 
the isolated case of the man who doesn't know the field; we take 
the isolated case of the man who names the few countries where 
we 'are led by Germany and Great Britain, and puts these before 
us with such prominence that we forget the truth as to the entire 
field ! 

Which would you prefer, to have eight hundred and ten mil- 
lions of dollars of trade with all Latin America and be beaten 
out by Germany in two or three of the twenty, or have only four 
hundred and ten millions of dollars in all Latin America and let 
Germany have eight hundred and ten millions? 

It is true that in three or four of the countries of South Amer- 
ica we are led, decidedly, by Germany and Great Britain in certain 
respects. But why should we pick out those few countries and draw 



23 

that conclusion for all Latin America proper? South America 
proper has ten of the twenty countries of Latin America. We are 
led only in a few by Germany and Great Britain. But here is the 
fact that is most convincing of all : During the last ten years the 
United States has increased its trade in volume and value in those 
countries, even in the countries where we are beaten out by Ger- 
many and Great Britain, faster than have either of those countries. 

This does not mean that we shall not make a supreme effort, 
just the same. It does not mean that the Chicago Association of 
Commerce, and all the other Illinois organizations, shall do every- 
thing in their power to educate our people in the trade of that 
part of the world, This wonderful development we have had is 
due to the remarkable efforts of manufacturers, exporters and im- 
porters, many of whom are right here in Chicago, and deserving 
of splendid credit for what they have done. You are drawing 
conclusions without thinking of numerous manufacturers here in 
this State and neighboring states and in this and other cities, who 
for years have been doing a growing trade in Latin America and 
know conditions down there perfectly. The thing is to get the 
average manufacturer and the average business man to go ahead 
on the same basis that these other men have done and build up a 
trade that will distance all Europe so that it will be impossible 
for it ever to displace the United States from its position. That 
is what, today, I am urging upon the American manufacturers to 
consider. 

The final bogey is this : You say, "Mr. Barrett, what of this 
distrust, what of the dislike of the Monroe Doctrine?" That is a 
very foolish idea. The trouble is, again, that here we draw a con- 
clusion from isolated cases. If one writer or editor down in 
Argentina comes out with an article or editorial against the 
Monroe Doctrine or the United States; if one editor inveighs 
against them, it is repeated up here by all of our papers and 
statesmen as the opinion of all Latin America. Very likely not 
one of the greatest authorities of that country said anything to that 
effect. Not long ago the late President of Argentina wrote a book 
against the Monroe Doctrine, and many people here threw up 
their hands and said : "Look at that ; I told you so !" But it 



24 

didn't create a ripple in Argentina. You read the editorials of 
some of your Chicago and New York papers, iand you think that 
he apparently voiced the sentiment of all Latin America! They 
overlook what Mr. Eomulo S. Naon, that able, progressive young 
Ambassador of Argentina is preaching over this country. They 
listen instead to a man that was already half in the grave when 
he wrote his Anti-Monroe doctrine book. They listen to the 
sophistries of Anti-American orators but pay too little heed to the 
words of a leader like Eduardo Suarez Mujica, the Ambassador 
of Chile, who knows the sentiments of these countries more than 
these men who seek only popular favor. 

If I had time I could read to you parts that I have picked out 
from a chapter of a book that I am now writing on Pan Ameri- 
canism, and I could prove to you beyond question that not a word 
of credit should be given to talk against the Monroe Doctrine. 
The Monroe Doctrine was born in the spirit of Pan Americanism. 
It was born in the spirit of the relationship among the nations 
of the western hemisphere. Pan Americanism was a mighty in- 
fluence in this country twenty-five years before the Monroe Doc- 
trine was declared. I could quote here, if I had the time, the 
words from that great character of Venezuela, Miranda, in 1788, 
which were almost as remarkable as those of Monroe. And then 
I could quote to you the words of Simon Bolivar, the George 
Washington of Northern South America, who pointed out the 
necessity of Pan American co-operation along the very lines that 
the Monroe Doctrine specifically brought out. When Bolivar made 
the call for the first great Pan American Conference which met 
in Panama in 1826, he repeated sentiments that he had uttered a 
score of times during the past twenty years. 

Juan Pablo Vizcardo y Guzman, a Peruvian patriot and priest, 
in a paper he left with the United States Minister in London, 
where he died in 1798, urging independence for his countrymen of 
South America said: 

"The recent acquisition of independence by their neighbors 
in North America has made the deepest impression on them." 

Dean Gregorio Funes, an Argentine patriot, wrote in 1819 : 



25 

"The Forth American Revolution, and the recent French 
one, revived among us the natural rights of man/' 

The President of Chile, when he received Joel Roberts Poin- 
sett, as United States Consul General, on February 24, 1812, said: 

"That power (the United States) attracts all our attention and 
our attachment. You may safely assure it of the sincerity of our 
friendly sentiments.'^ 

In the famous ".Declaration of the Rights of the Chilean 
People," made by Juan Martinez de Rosas about 1810, he gave 
expression to the following remarkable Pan American sentiments, 
which might apply almost as well today as they did then: 

"1. The people of Latin America cannot defend their sov- 
ereignty single-handed; in order to develop themselves they need 
to unite, not in an international organization, but for external 
security against the plans of Europe, and to avoid wars among 
themselves. 

"2. This does not mean that the European states are to be 
regarded as enemies; on the contrary, the friendly relations with 
them must be strengthened as far as possible, 

"3. The American states must unite in a congress in order 
to endeavor to organize and to fortify themselves * * * rpj^g 
day when America, united in a congress, whether of the two con- 
tinents, or of the South, shall speak to the rest of the world, her 
voice will make itself respected and her resolve would be opposed 
with difficulty." 

Think of it! Every Latin American country approved of 
those sentiments then, to unite Pan America not in an inter- 
national organization, but for external security against the aggres- 
sions of Europe and to avoid war among themselves. Do you 
ever want better Pan Americanism than those sentiments expressed 
'one hundred and six years ago, by the people of Latin America? 

Pan Americanism does not mean that European states are to 
be regarded as enemies. There is nothing in Pan Americanism 
that is antagonistic to Europe unless Europe so desires to construe 
it. On the contrary, the friendly relations with them must be 
strengthened as far as possible. 

Do you know that in 1811 President Madison sent a message 



26 

to Congress that embodied almost the words of the Monroe Doc- 
trine ? Then again Samuel Mitchell, member of Congress from 
Hew York, on December 10, 1811, introduced a resolution, which 
was unanimously approved by Congress, and contained practically 
all the sentiments of present day Pan Americanism and also of 
the Monroe Doctrine. In 1812 John C. Calhoun announced his 
conversion to the cause of Pan Americanism, and the necessity of 
the United States standing with the Latin American countries in 
their efforts to gain their independence. You know the hold 
on this country that the great Jefferson had. In 1808 he wrote to 
Governor Claiborne, at New Orleans, in reference to the Cuban 
and Mexican war : "Consider their interests and ours as the same, 
and the object of both must be to exclude all European influence 
from this hemisphere." Thomas Jefferson said this in 1808 ! 
And yet they try to make us think that England and Canning 
deserve the credit for inspiring the Monroe Doctrine, declared in 
1823 ! Jefferson, again in 1820, three years before the declaration 
of the Monroe Doctrine, expressed those same sentiments. Down 
in Buenos Aires, in 1810, they discussed the necessity of Pan 
American action to defend the new sovereignties which were aris- 
ing in the western hemisphere. 

You know the trouble we are having today with Colombia, 
and yet Torres came from Colombia as the first diplomatic repre- 
sentative of Latin America and in 1816 demanded of the Ameri- 
can people that they should write a Monroe Doctrine. He did not 
call it that, but urged that they should express sentiments to the 
same effect. 

And so I might go on, quoting and quoting. I have only 
touched a few of the high places, in order that you may realize 
that what we are trying to do today is only carrying out what 
was started long ago. And do you stop to think that there is no 
greater Pan American in all American history than Henry Clay? 
Do you realize that when Henry Clay died he said that he believed 
his greatest service, or the one that would last the longest in 
history, was what he did for the republics of Latin America? The 
greatest speeches Henry Clay delivered in Congress were those 
of 1816, 1817, 1819 and 1820, in behalf of the Latin American 



27 

countries. It was he who responded to Bolivar's appeal for a Pan 
American Congress at Panama in 1826, and who sent delegates 
after the United States Congress had three times refused to make 
an appropriation, although they arrived too late. Just before 
Bolivar died he wrote a wonderful letter to Henry Clay and 
invoked the praise of future ages upon him for making the inde- 
pendence of the Latin American countries possible. 

And what of Daniel Webster? His greatest service in his 
later years was his allegiance to the Monroe Doctrine inspired by 
the spirit of Pan Americanism which it carried. 

These are things we must weigh carefully and surely, when we 
are studying this great Pan American situation and are trying to 
understand relationship of the Monroe Doctrine to the present. 

Today there is this great thought in the minds of nearly all 
Latin American statesmen: We are coming back now to Just 
where we started the Monroe Doctrine; that today, in 1916, it is 
just as necessary, and perhaps more necessary than it was in 1816, 
only extended and unfolded until we have a mighty oranization 
of twenty-one governments to stand back of it and make the 
world respect it, whereas then there was only one independent 
nation in the western hemisphere that could stand for it. 

Gentlemen, Latin America objects not to the Monroe Doctrine 
in itself, because the study of history will not permit it. What it 
objects to is the interpretation that so many of our statesmen 
and essayists and writers and authorities on international law have 
given it, upon their own authority. Latin America objects to the 
idea of superiority and patronage on the part of the United 
States. Latin American nations are ready to accept the Monroe 
Doctrine as a Pan American policy which recognizes their equality 
with the United States. 

I wish I had time this evening to take you, so to speak, for a 
birdseye view of some of the remarkable features of Latin America. 
I could tell you how we could put all of the connected area of 
the United States inside of Brazil, and still have room for Illinois 
twice over. I could tell you how, out of the Amazon Eiver every 
day flows a greater volume of water by five times than out of the 
Mississippi and its tributaries, plus the Columbia; how Eio de 



28 

Janeiro, its famous capital is located on the most beautiful harbor 
in the world and has a population of one million two hundred 
thousand. How Uruguay, which is an ambitious state to the 
south of Brazil, has a capital, Montevideo, with four hundred 
thousand population, and has expended ten million dollars on a 
great harbor for the growing trade of the Atlantic Ocean, I wish 
I were an orator that I might do justice to that fair land of 
Argentina, where I was once your minister. You could put nearly 
half of the United States inside of Argentina. Buenos Aires, its 
capital, is the largest Spanish speaking city in the world ; the larg- 
est city in the world south of the equator; the second Latin city 
of the world, ranking next to Paris; the third city in the western 
hemisphere, ranking after ISTew York and Chicago; a city which 
today has a population of 1,750,000; a city that thought little of 
spending twenty-five millions for a great subway system; forty 
millions for a great system of docks and wharves; and twenty 
millions for a broad avenue through the heart of the city. It 
possesses the finest club in the world the finest opera house in 
the Americas, and, with all due respect to the News, the Herald, 
the Tribune, the Post, the American and the Journal, it possesses 
the finest newspaper plant and building in the wide world! 

Then I would like to take you over the great railway systems 
of Argentina, and into the interior, to realize its possibilities, but 
I have not time. 

So across the Andes we fiy, and come to remarkable Chile. We 
do not stop to think that we could put the whole Atlantic coast, 
from Maine to Florida, inside of Chile; that, if we put the south 
end of Chile down at San Diego on the Mexican line, the north 
end of Chile would not stop at Oregon, at Washington, at British 
Columbia or at the Alaska line, but reach away up into the heart 
of Alaska! We do not stop to think that Chile is a country with 
nearly three hundred thousand square miles, often called the 
Yankeeland of South America, in the south temperate zone, di- 
rectly south through the Panama Canal. We do not stop to think 
that Santiago, its capital, sometimes called the Paris of the Andes, 
has a population of five hundred thousand, and that at Valparaiso, 
Chile's port, a city of two hundred and fifty thousand, they are 



29 

building a great artificial harbor that will be the finest of its kind 
upon the Pacific. 

We do not stop to think that into Bolivia we could put Texas 
twice over and then add this wonderful state. Into Peru we could 
put the whole Atlantic coast from Maine to Georgia. And we for- 
get that down there in Lima, its capital, they had a university one 
hundred years old, before John Harvard or Eli Yale thought of 
founding the universities which carry their names. 

And then there are Ecuador and Paraguay. I might speak 
of them, but I have not time. In either of them you could put 
Illinois twice over and a little more. And then: Colombia and 
Venezuela. Just think of it ! From the most southern port on 
our coast line, Key West, to the nearest point of Colombia or of 
Venezuela is less than the distance from New York City to Kansas 
City ! Into Colombia, with four hundred miles of coast on both the 
Atlantic, or Caribbean, and the Pacific, you could put the entire 
German Empire and France. In Venezuela you could include the 
greater part of France and Spain. 

And so I might go on describing Panama, the five Central 
American republics, Mexico, Cuba, the Dominican Republic and 
Haiti, but I have not time, beyond reminding you of a few general 
facts. 

Do not think for a moment that I speak of Latin America 
as being an El Dorado; it has its shortcomings. There are serious 
difficulties facing our commerce and our trade. There are real 
discouragements ahead of us before we shall have all of the con- 
ditions that we desire. But what would our country be, what 
would Chicago be, what would this great Mississippi Valley be, 
if it had not been for the- fight that our ancestors had to carry 
on to evolve present conditions? What would our own Pacific 
coast be, and our mountain country, except for the overwhelming 
difficulties of all kinds that our ancestors fought and mastered 
before those sections reached their wonderful, present day civiliza- 
tion and progress? We must not expect that in a twinkling of 
an eye there is any magic that can suddenly transform Latin 
America into an ideal part of the world. It will take time to 
evolve its new life. But the United States must lead the way. 



30 

Upon the Pan American future depend our life and our pros- 
perity. Let us hope that when the European war is over, there 
may not a line go up and down the Atlantic Ocean with Europe 
and Asia on one side and Pan America on the other? And, fear- 
ful though the thought may be, let us pray that there may not 
a line go up and down the Pacific, with Japan and China on one 
side and Pan America on the other? But we must think of these 
things even if they seem remote possibilities. If, then, a line 
were drawn east and west, cutting off Latin America, with all 
of her resources and relationships, and finally another line, cutting 
off. Canada, for we know her allegiance would be with another 
land, the United States would become the greatest Belgium in the 
war history of the world ! 

These are thoughts we must consider. They are not the words 
of an alarmist. They are not sensational sentiments. They are 
our sound suggestions, as we study the situation. As I go away 
I want to leave a kindly thought in your minds. I realize, from 
my experience in this world, that after all, the great controlling 
influence to weld nations together, just as it is the great con- 
trolling influence to weld men and women together, is sentiment; 
we may call it love ! the most wonderful thing in the world. That 
same love is going to be the most powerful factor in holding the 
nations of the western hemisphere together in the future, for love 
among both human beings and nations is founded upon mutual 
confidence, upon trust of one in another, and upon the intimate 
association of those concerned. Now, then, how many of you have 
stopped to think of the great tie of sentiment that binds Latin 
America to us, without reference to what may be your thoughts 
about the commerce of the United States with those countries? 
How many realize that every one of these twenty countries lying 
south of the United States wrote its Declaration of Independence 
upon the Declaration of the Independence of the United States, 
not upon any document of Spain, of Portugal, of Prance, of Ger- 
many, or of Great Britain? How many of you realize that every 
one of these countries wrote its Constitution, not upon the Con- 
stitution of any European land no matter how close the ties of 
blood and language, but every one of them wrote its Constitution 



31 

upon that of the United States. Great Britain, Germany, Etance, 
have no such ties as these with any group of nations in the world. 
These are ties before God, that we can never break, because they 
are part of absolute history. And, no matter what may be the 
trend of future events, there are the facts as great mainsprings 
of inspiration for our interest in those lands and for their interest 
in us. 

Then again there is the influence of the immortal Washington. 
The other day, when I went down to Richmond and into the 
rotunda of its old capitol, I almost fell upon my knees to worship, 
so to speak, the statue of Washington, because it was the figure, 
the original bronze, that Houduin himself wrought, in the very 
time of Washington. And as I gazed at that figure of Wash- 
ington, wrought when Washington was alive, I felt as if I were in 
touch with that mighty man of the early days of our land, and I 
was tempted, inspired, to say to him that I brought the homage 
of all Latin America, because history tells us this fact, that nearly 
every great general and patriot of Latin America, who fought for 
the independence of his land, at one time or another stated that 
he was inspired to make the struggle for the liberty of his coun- 
try, by the example of the immortal George Washington ! 

I have now led up to the final picture that I want you to have 
in your minds when you go away; the contrast of the civilizations 
of Europe and of Pan America, as a reason why all of you should 
go out of this room tonight as sincere Pan Americans, not merely 
as citizens of this State and city and section, but as citizens of all 
the United States and of Pan America, with a responsibility 
greater than you have ever known before. 

The operator turns the reel, the curtain rises, and the films 
move on. It is Europe? No, it is hell! We see nothing but 
armies, men and women, children, dynasties, civilizations, pouring 
over the brink of war's despair into the pit of hell ! We see the 
mighty civilization of thousands of years being destroyed under 
the withering fire of the greatest conflict of forces that the world 
has ever known, and before long our eyes are closed in sheer 
weariness at the sight of destruction and death and ruin on every 
hand. 



32 

Then this curtain goes down, to rise again on another scene. 
The operator again turns the reel; the films move on; they por- 
tray Pan America and we see the marvelous picture of sister 
nations working harmoniously together; we see the great Pan 
American Scientific Congress in Washington, the greatest inter- 
national gathering that Washington has ever known, the greatest 
Pan American gathering which ever met upon the western hemis- 
phere, when two hundred official delegates, representing every 
country of the western hemisphere, with their wives and children, 
assembled under the shadow, as it were, or under the light, of the 
Capitol of the United States, and there sang the songs and told 
the stories of peace and love and friendship and concord and 
concert, as never before have been sung and told there in the his- 
tory of this western hemisphere. 

Finally the operator gives us one dissolving noble view, a 
Godly scene — a scene of prayer and thankfulness. It takes us 
down the Cordillera, down through Central and South America, 
far south to the dividing line between Argentina and Chile. 
There, fifteen thousand feet above the sea, with its snowy Andean 
peaks for a background, the rolling plateaus of Argentina on one 
side and the mountains of Chile on the other, we see standing 
high a heroic figure of the Christ, the Savior of men, erected there 
some fifteen years ago by Argentina and Chile, when, with greater 
cause for war than have had the countries of Europe, but inspired 
by the principles of Pan Americanism, inspired by the ideas of the 
civilization of the western hemisphere, inspired by a desire to set 
an example not only to Pan America, but to all the world, they 
settled their difficulties by arbitration and built this bronze figure 
of Christ, with arms outstretched over Chile and Argentina as if 
to bless them with everlasting peace; and then they inscribed upon 
its base an immortal sentiment which will always be an inspiration 
to all nations of Pan America and eventually of the world, to this 
effect: "Sooner shall these mountains crumble to dust 'than shall 
Argentina and Chile go to war." 

(Long and continued applause.) 

President MacChesney: This completes our programme, 
but Ladies and Gentlemen, I think I may assure our guest of the 



33 

evening that I express our common opinion and common hope 
that we will leave this room with a larger appreciation of the 
importance, both of the extent and resources of South America 
and of our need to know The" Other Americans more intimately, 
and that the relations of the countries of both North and South 
America^ may continue to be increasingly cordial, standing solidly 
together for the integrity of the "Western hemisphere and its com- 
mon purpose to serve and promote our common republican ideals. 



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